Proposal could increase homelessness, poverty

City officials and housing advocates say Gov. Jerry Brown's
proposal to abolish redevelopment agencies would worsen
homelessness and poverty in North County by wiping out the region's
prime funding source and main incentive to build low-income
housing.

Most of the uproar from Brown's proposal, which the state
Legislature is expected to vote on next week, has focused on
redevelopment's role in creating jobs by providing cities millions
for economic development projects.

But in interviews last week, critics of Brown's proposal said
another key drawback of eliminating redevelopment revenue would be
stifling the construction of low-income apartments in North County,
which has recently gained significant momentum.

Susan Tinsky, executive director of the San Diego Housing
Federation, said 7,000 apartments reserved for low-income residents
have been built in North County during the past four decades.

And she said most of them would not have been built if
redevelopment agencies were not required to spend 20 percent of
their revenue on low-income housing.

For example, housing federation statistics show that San Marcos,
which has the region's largest redevelopment agency, also has the
highest number of low-income apartments, with 2,043 such units.

And Encinitas, the only North County city without a
redevelopment agency, has the fewest low-income units at 112.

The advocates said many cities have been reluctant to build
low-income units based on concerns about crime or property values,
but that the lure of redevelopment as an economic catalyst had
forced them to build such housing.

But some other city officials and low-income housing advocates
said such housing would still get built in North County without
redevelopment, although at a slower pace.

They suggested that solutions could be city "inclusionary" laws
requiring developers to build some low-income units within
market-rate projects, or "density bonuses" given to developers who
build high-rises.

For example, housing federation numbers show that Carlsbad has
used its inclusionary law, which was adopted in 1992, to help
create 1,671 units of affordable housing in a city that receives
relatively little redevelopment revenue because its 212-acre
redevelopment district is quite small.

Density bonuses allow developers to build projects with more
units than their property's zoning permits in exchange for the
developer including some low-income units.

And San Diego attorney Catherine Rodman, who has used
redevelopment law to sue several North County cities for failing to
build enough low-income housing, said she could still sue if
redevelopment goes away because of state requirements.

"Even without redevelopment, cities still have a legal
obligation to plan for affordable housing," Rodman said.

Rodman said she was also hopeful the Legislature would preserve
the low-income housing portion of redevelopment law while
abolishing the rest of it, explaining that such legislation was
debated in Sacramento this month.

Housing the poor

Advocates for low-income housing say it allows veterans,
seniors, restaurant workers and other people with limited incomes
to live in North County, where rents are among the highest in the
nation.

"If redevelopment is eliminated, we would have a very severe
homeless situation that would have a huge impact on cities and
social services," said John Seymour, vice president of nonprofit
National Community Renaissance, which has built several low-income
housing projects in North County.